Random freezes with no BSOD

[Thedoctor44]

Is Driver Verifier still on?

Turn it on with normal settings.

Enable Driver Verifier to monitor the drivers.
Driver Verifier -Enable and Disable
Run Driver Verifier for 24 hours or the occurrence of the next crash, whichever is earlier.

   Information

Why Driver Verifier:
It puts a stress on the drivers, ans so it makes the unstable drivers crash. Hopefully the driver that crashes is recorded in the memory dump.

How Can we know that DV is enabled:
It will make the system bit of slow, laggy.

   Warning

Before enabling DV, make it sure that you have earlier System restore points made in your computer. You can check it easily by using CCleaner looking at Tools > System Restore.

If there is no points, make a System Restore Point Manually before enabling DV.

   Tip

• If you fail to get on the Desktop because of DV, Boot into Advanced Boot Options > Safe mode. Disable DV there. Now boot normally again, and try following the instruction of enabling DV again.
• If you cannot boot in Safe mode too, do a System Restore to a point you made earlier.

Let us know the results, with the subsequent crash dumps, if any.

 

[Laurie]

OK so Driver Verifier was still on but I changed it over to the settings described in the tutorial. I restarted the computer and immediately got a series of BSODs during boot up (at the stage where the windows icon is gently glowing in the centre of the screen). I got two different BSOD messages: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA and IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

The computer got into a cycle of trying to boot, BSODing, trying to boot again, BSODing again etc. After about 5 cycles, I powered the machine off, booted again, and it successfully made it to the desktop. However unfortunately, none of these BSODs seem to have produced any new dump files. The only two dump files seem to be the ones from 27th.

How should I proceed from here? For the time being, I've turned Driver Verifier off, but I'm happy to switch it back on again. However given that I'm only seemingly getting the BSODs during startup, I guess I'd have to keep restarting the machine rather than using it normally if I'm to force another BSOD.

 

[Britton30]

I think those errors are memory related but could be GPU or CPU memory as well.

How did the drive and Furmark testing go?

 

[Laurie]

Hi Britton. So the Memtest86 tests were fine. I followed Thedoctor's advice and ran the tests for eight passes, and it passed all eight times without any error. With the Furmark test, I didn't notice any visual artifacts, but the GPU did start overheating after a couple of minutes. I've not done another test of the SSHDs since the original one I did after the problems began, but on that occasion, both drives passed the Seagate Dos Tools long test.

 

[Thedoctor44]

It says in the tutorial if you cannot start up then use safe mode.

Anyway, those bugchecks are generally caused by drivers or memory and if Driver Verifier bugchecks on start up then it looks like a driver issue.

For another lead we need some new dump files.

 

[Laurie]

OK well I've switched Driver Verifier back on and I've been continually restarting the computer. Each boot, I get one of three results: the computer takes a long time to boot but does so successfully, the computer hangs on boot at the glowing Windows icon stage, or the computer BSODs at the glowing Windows icon stage. BSOD is the rarest of these three, but I've had 4-5 since the last post by doing this. However none of them have produced any new dump files.

Unfortunately, as this is fairly time intensive, I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be able to spend here restarting the machine. Do you know if there is anything I can do to make a memory dump more likely? If not, is there some way I can set the machine to automatically keep restarting itself whilst I'm away?

EDIT:
Also I should add that on the BSOD screen, it does say that it is creating a memory dump. The % complete goes up in steps of 5% at a time, and reaches 95% before restarting (I assume this is because the final step takes it to 100% and it restarts, and therefore it is never displayed). Anyhow my point is, the BSOD appears to think that it's creating a memory dump.

 

[Britton30]

Laurie do you have you machine configured to collect dmp files?
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/174459-dump-files-configure-windows-create-bsod.html

 

[Laurie]

Currently, the machine is set to the "Kernel memory dump" option. Is this correct or should I set it to "Small memory dump" instead?

 

[Thedoctor44]

Unless necessary we don't need Kernel Memory Dumps, they are much larger in size so you would have to upload it through one drive.

It's only really needed with cases like 0x101 errors where we need more information one the processor for example.
There are more cases but that's one of the main ones.

Small Memory Dump will do fine.

If it was set to Kernel Memory Dump at the time then it will be located:
C:/Windows/memory.dmp

Kernel Memory Dumps are not located in the minidump file.

Look at the "Last modified" date on the memory.dmp and if it's new then upload that to one drive and post the link.
It's too large to upload here.

 

[Laurie]

Thanks for the advice. I've checked the MEMORY.DMP file but unfortunately, it's dated for the same time as the last crash dumps I uploaded, so I don't think it's been created for any of the more recent BSODs.

I've now changed over to the Small memory dump option, and when I get back tonight, I'll have another restarting session with the computer to see if I can trigger some BSODs and get a memory dump.

 

[Britton30]

A kernel memory dump can be MBs in size and hard to find info. Small ones are a few KBs.

 

[Thedoctor44]

The main reason we don't use Kernel Memory Dumps is because it contains no information regarding User Mode operations.
So you cannot find out what process is being run etc.

It's not necessary for what we're trying to do.

 

[Laurie]

I've changed the settings over to Small memory dump and have done a few restarts now, and I've got a fair few BSODs. However no dumps are being produced. Moreover, the BSOD says "Initializing disk for crash dump" but then restarts immediately without displaying the percentage of completing the memory dump as it did before.

 

[Britton30]

You might want to try a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html#post31238 noting the 3rd bullet item in the Warning box.

 

[Thedoctor44]

Follow these instructions and when you see the option "Automatically Restart", just deselect it.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/174459-dump-files-configure-windows-create-bsod.html

 

[Laurie]

@Thedoctor
Right well I did that, restarted a couple of times, and when the BSOD reappeared (it always seems to be IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL now) it just hung. It gets as far as saying

Collecting data for crash dump ...
Initializing disk for crash dump ...

and then just sits there. I've left it there for over half an hour now and it doesn't seem to have any intention of creating the crash dump any time soon.

@Britton
What is your thought on the repair install? Do you think that could fix the freeze?

 

[Thedoctor44]

Is driver verifier enabled?

 

[Laurie]

Yes, that's why I'm getting the BSODs. I think if I turn it off, the machine should boot fine but will then freeze later.

 

[Laurie]

Hi again. I just wanted to give an update on this. After a few days of getting nowhere, I decided just to take a punt on it. So, as the freezes generally seemed to happen when I was on the net or listening to music, I singled out the drivers from my network adapter, my ethernet, and my headphones. I uninstalled them using Device Manager, reinstalled them, and I've now been running the machine for several days with no more freezes. Hopefully that did the trick, but if the problem returns, I'll surely be back .

The graphics card is still overheating but I'm going to take the computer apart ASAP and reapply the thermal paste to the graphics card so hopefully I'll be able to resolve that soon too.

Anyhow thanks for your efforts and guidance on this.

 

[Thedoctor44]

Good to hear
Let us know if you get any more issues.